Author: Ma Licheng
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"Worry about the world first, and enjoy the world later" has long been a famous sentence to inspire people with lofty ideals, but Fan Zhongyan's main career is not to write prose, but to preside over the vigorous celebration of the New Deal in the middle of the Northern Song Dynasty.
Generally speaking, Zhao Zhen of Song Renzong was not a bad emperor after he ascended the throne in 1022, but his life was not easy. Renzong, who is at home and abroad, has to consider reform under great pressure. At this time, he thought of Fan Zhongyan.
Originally, Fan Zhongyan was still wavering. Perhaps Injong was eager for success and didn't fully consider the difficulties of reform, but the emperor's trust had reached the extreme. What can courtiers say? A few days later, he wrote "Ten Answers to Chen" and handed it to Injong. In this paper, Fan Zhongyan tells a truth: "The politics of past dynasties has always had drawbacks, and it is inevitable that it will be a disaster if it is not saved."
Fan Zhongyan's memorial is famous in the history of China's reform. Renzong was very happy when he received Fan Zhongyan's report. After research, except for the seventh military discussion, the other nine articles, supplemented by detailed rules, were successively promulgated and implemented throughout the country, which was called the "New Deal" at that time and later called the "Qingli New Deal". Its focus is on the reform of the cadre system, which belongs to the category of political system reform and is a very thorny hot potato.
Song dynasty, which is famous for its history, has too many redundant staff. There are many ways to be an official, of course, the imperial examination is the most authentic, and there are also ways such as "door shadow" and "accepting millet". Everyone asks for an official, and a thousand troops crowd the wooden bridge.
First of all, the number of official positions in the imperial examination in the Song Dynasty was staggering. As far as the number of officials is concerned, it is five times that of the Tang Dynasty, 30 times that of the Yuan Dynasty, 4 times that of the Ming Dynasty and 3.4 times that of the Qing Dynasty, which is unprecedented. Of course, the number of officials has greatly increased. However, it is fair and reasonable to take the imperial examination. More problems lie in the "door shadow" system.
"Door shadow", also known as "shadow" and "shade supplement", is a saying that "it is good to enjoy the cool under a big tree" and "it is good for someone to be an official in the DPRK". It is a common practice that children of emperors and descendants of consorts are awarded official titles and knighthoods.
In addition, there is "Su Na", that is, buying officials. The government expanded armaments, dredged rivers and even provided relief. It has gradually become a system that rich people can seal up when they come out to buy food.
Adding up the above factors, it is natural that there are too many redundant staff and the quality is declining. Ouyang Xiu, then an admonition officer, discovered in Zhongxiang, Hubei that Wang Changyun, the local leader, was too old and sick to walk. He needs two people to help him go to work. Three years later, the state government fell into disrepair. Liu Yi, who succeeded him, is over 70 years old, deaf and blind, and doesn't even know the name of the current prime minister. Ouyang Xiu wrote a report to Injong and said, Your Majesty, think about it. Can such cadres manage the place well?
Fan Zhongyan hates this. He believes that the most important thing is to weaken the "door shadow" group. After submitting ten things to answer Chen's calligraphy, he presided over the drafting of important documents such as Ren, which restricted the hereditary official position of cadres' children. At the same time, it also cracked down on the variant of "shadow under the door", that is, some big eunuchs used the power of ouchi to violate the regulations and occupied high positions in some areas of Beijing and many fat units privately, bossing around and refusing to give way for more than ten years. Fan Zhongyan, Fu Bi and Han Qi discussed the political reform. The first step is to set the term of office of the leaders in these areas as three years, and they are not allowed to ask for re-election in private. If the term of office exceeds three years, it is necessary to write to the emperor to recall him and choose another qualified official to serve.
At the same time, Fan Zhongyan sent three capable officials, Wang Ding, Yang Jian and Wang Chuo, to make unannounced visits to officials at all levels and places, find and promote talented officials and deal with corrupt officials. Fan Zhongyan was rude when he dismissed unqualified cadres. Every time he sees a fact-finding report, he erases the names of corrupt officials with a stroke of the pen. Fu Bi said: "It's easy to hook up with him, but do you know that his whole family is crying!" Fan Zhongyan's answer became a famous historical sentence: "A family crying is not as good as a whole area crying!"
Once the interests are redistributed, fewer and fewer people call Fan Zhongyan a saint, which is human nature. As a result, a considerable number of big bureaucrats, local officials and big eunuchs began to collude in secret and organized forces to plan and eradicate Fan Zhongyan.
One way is to start with economic problems. Shortly after the New Deal began, supervisor Liang Jian wrote to impeach Teng, a local official in Shaanxi Province, and the deputy commander of the Western Military Region for embezzlement and misappropriation of confidential fees. These two men have always been valued by Fan Zhongyan and are staunch supporters of the New Deal. The confidential fee is a small amount of liquidity granted by the emperor to officials, and there is a vague space for its use. Seeing this situation, Fan Zhongyan resigned and stood up to defend them. However, the other party also threatened to resign. Wang, the imperial envoy who opposed Fan Zhongyan, also resigned and really didn't come to work. Previously, Teng had criticized Renzong's delicious food and exaggerated his words, which made Renzong lose face and was very unhappy. At this point, Injong couldn't help but think of his old enemy, so he had to turn to Wang and demote Teng and Zhang.
Then there is framing. Former Minister Xia Song was impeached and demoted by Ouyang Xiu and others, so he hated Fan Zhongyan and Ouyang Xiu very much. Lao Xia likes calligraphy and is good at studying fonts. A maid around him is also fascinated by this one. Li Qing four years (1044), instigated the maid to imitate the handwriting of the famous teacher Shijie, and gradually confused the fake with the real. Shijie is a great celebrity who firmly supports Fan Zhongyan. He often writes articles and poems about state affairs, which is very bold. Old Xia was really dark enough to let the maid imitate Shi Jie's handwriting and tamper with a letter written by Shi Jie to Fu Bi. Tampering with the added content implies that a coup will be staged to overthrow Renzong. Xia Song gave this letter to Injong, which is a big newspaper. After reading this letter, Injong didn't quite believe it, but he was worried.
Another deadly trick of special interest groups is to accuse Fan Zhongyan and others of secretly forming a party and engaging in illegal organizations.
Xia Song, the prime minister of the current dynasty, colluded with Wang, the minister of the former dynasty, and instructed the remonstrator to complain to the emperor, saying that Fan Zhongyan was cronyism and cronyism, disturbing the court. Most of the people they recommend are his cronies. All people belonging to their party try their best to protect propaganda; Those who do not belong to their party will be rejected and killed.
This accusation touched the most sensitive political pain point since the founding of the Northern Song Dynasty.
In September of the third year (963) after Song Taizu seized power, taking many troubles caused by the dispute between Niu and Li Dang in Tang Dynasty as lessons, he wrote: It is forbidden to call examiners teachers or students. What the rulers of the Song Dynasty feared most was the centrifugal force of ministers uniting into factions or cronies and developing into imperial power. They should fully apply the principle of mutual restraint to the interpersonal relationship of bureaucrats. After Taizong, both Zhenzong and Renzong expressed a firm attitude in this regard and never gave in. Renzong has repeatedly sent letters instructing North Korean officials to "abstain from cronies". So this has actually become the family law and the bottom line since the early Song Dynasty.
Renzong wanted to hear what Fan Zhongyan had to say after receiving a small report on his party. One day in April of the fourth year of Qing Dynasty, Renzong asked his ministers, "In the past, most villains were cronies. Do gentlemen also form small groups? " Fan Zhongyan replied with a frank attitude: "When I was in the border defense, I saw people who knew how to fight and gathered together to call themselves the party, and cowards also called themselves the party. In the imperial court, so did both sides. As long as your majesty observes attentively, you can distinguish loyalty from treachery. What harm does it do to the country to form a party to do good? " Injong certainly disagrees with this answer.
Unexpectedly, just as the factional disputes in the imperial court were raging and Fan Zhongyan gradually lost the trust of Renzong, Ouyang Xiu, 37, simply wrote a political commentary on cronyism, submitted it to Renzong and circulated it among his ministers.
Ouyang Xiu's article not only does not shy away from factional issues, but admits that everyone is indeed in the party. There are "false friends" who intersect with the interests of villains, and "true friends" formed by gentlemen with similar interests. Ouyang Xiu suggested that an emperor should distinguish between a gentleman's party and a villain's party, and "retire the villain's false friends and use the gentleman's true friends".
This is tantamount to announcing to Injong that we have formed a clique, which is also a challenge to Injong's family law and bottom line. Judging from the deep taboos and anxieties of the Northern Song Emperor, Qing Li's New Deal so confidently declared that nepotism was tantamount to suicide.
Sure enough, as soon as this article came out, special interest groups celebrated each other (they never admitted that they were cronies) and the political situation took a turn for the worse. This article became the decisive turning point of Qingli New Deal, because it was an extremely sensitive and serious political issue for Song Renzong, and the voices opposing the reform inside and outside the imperial court were the same. Injong made up his mind to expel Fan Zhongyan from the central government in order to maintain the autocratic rule of the emperor.
In June this year, Song Renzong appointed Fan Zhongyan as the special envoy of Fu Xuan in Shaanxi and Shanxi (a senior official dealing with local military and political affairs), and Fan Zhongyan was forced to leave the capital. The anti-reform forces in the imperial court took the opportunity to storm Fan Zhongyan, and Renzong was completely shaken.
1 1 month, Injong wrote a letter, emphasizing that "ruling the world is not a crony."
In the first month of the fifth year of Li Qing, Renzong dismissed Fan Zhongyan as a counselor and was demoted to Bin County, Shaanxi Province. Revocation of Fu Bi's agreement position, reduced to Shandong Yuncheng people; Han was removed from the post of deputy envoy and demoted to Yangzhou, Jiangsu; Du Yan, who actively supported the reform, was dismissed as prime minister and demoted to Yanzhou, Shandong Province on the grounds of Du Yan's "supporting the trend of cronies". Then, he found a reason to remove Du Yan's son-in-law and Su Shunqin, a great writer who supported the New Deal, and demoted the people forever; Ouyang Xiu was demoted to Chuzhou, Anhui Province.
Soon after, most of the measures of the New Deal stopped. Fortunately, Bao Zheng and others tried their best to contain the "shadow under the door" and other measures, and the pace of denying the New Deal was only slightly delayed. The Qingli New Deal failed in just over a year. It was not until more than 20 years after Wang Anshi's political reform that some strategies of Qingli New Deal appeared with a new look.
Later, Wang Fuzhi summed up the gains and losses of the Qingli New Deal, saying that Renzong had a problem with his character, his heart was too soft, and his advice was hard to hear. At the beginning, I really trusted Fan Zhongyan, but I underestimated the resistance to reform, and I flinched when I met surging opposition. At both ends of the first mouse, nothing was realized. At this point, Renzong is not as good as his grandson Zongshen, and always supports Wang Anshi unswervingly.
In fact, there is another very important point. If the reform touches the emperor's bottom line, it will inevitably give up halfway.
"Worry about the world first, and enjoy the world later." Fan Zhongyan has a clear conscience. But in the long-term traditional society, such people with lofty ideals are always shrouded in tragedy.